09-11-2008, 10:16 PM
Shlama Akhi Mike,
Think about it this way: it looks just like we would expect a translation from Aramaic/Hebrew/Arabic to Greek would look. It looks just like the LXX, which we know is a translation. Forget about "Koine" for a moment. If it looks like other Greek documents that we know were translated from Semitic originals (Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, etc.) - then the simplest explanation is that the Greek NT, too, is a translation.
Now to test the hypothesis, we should be able to find examples of Casus pendens in Koine Greek literature, in primary sources from the same time period. In fact, we do not. Koine Greek did exist, but not to the extent that it followed, structure by structure, Semitic grammar. There should never be Casus pendens in an Indo-European document, because like to our English brethren here this isn't natural Greek and not something that one would expect would have been originally composed in Greek.
We need to carefully consider what Koine is: if every strange type of Greek grammar is lumped into the "Koine" category, then really there is no such thing as Greek grammar at all.
I would never compose the following sentence in English:
In my office where my translating do I
There it is
That shall find you my computer
Even though my first language is Semitic, yet I know enough about proper English grammar (despite my wife's objection) - I would never write the above that way. That's undoubtedly a translation from a Semitic source.
If I was composing in English, I would write it this way:
You will find my computer in my office, where I do my translating.
These are examples where the Greek translator had respect for the text and wished to preserve it word-for-word, despite the fact that he would be butchering Greek grammar.
+Shamasha
Think about it this way: it looks just like we would expect a translation from Aramaic/Hebrew/Arabic to Greek would look. It looks just like the LXX, which we know is a translation. Forget about "Koine" for a moment. If it looks like other Greek documents that we know were translated from Semitic originals (Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, etc.) - then the simplest explanation is that the Greek NT, too, is a translation.
Now to test the hypothesis, we should be able to find examples of Casus pendens in Koine Greek literature, in primary sources from the same time period. In fact, we do not. Koine Greek did exist, but not to the extent that it followed, structure by structure, Semitic grammar. There should never be Casus pendens in an Indo-European document, because like to our English brethren here this isn't natural Greek and not something that one would expect would have been originally composed in Greek.
We need to carefully consider what Koine is: if every strange type of Greek grammar is lumped into the "Koine" category, then really there is no such thing as Greek grammar at all.
I would never compose the following sentence in English:
In my office where my translating do I
There it is
That shall find you my computer
Even though my first language is Semitic, yet I know enough about proper English grammar (despite my wife's objection) - I would never write the above that way. That's undoubtedly a translation from a Semitic source.
If I was composing in English, I would write it this way:
You will find my computer in my office, where I do my translating.
These are examples where the Greek translator had respect for the text and wished to preserve it word-for-word, despite the fact that he would be butchering Greek grammar.
+Shamasha